September 7, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

This morning I fruit-explored with a local group on Deer Isle, and later gave a mid-afternoon outdoor talk to a large enthusiastic group at the Island Heritage Trust. The trees we visited included both grafted trees and seedlings. All were quite old. Four huge seedlings, now buried in the spruce forest, almost certainly grew up long ago on the edge of what was once pasture. They are still alive though suffering from the shade of the conifers. The owners love the trees and hopefully will remove enough of the tall spruce to get some light back to the apples. The talk at “IHT” was well received. I got a phone call in the middle of the talk and couldn’t figure out how to turn off the ringer. I think the crowd got a kick out of the interruption.

Todd Little-Siebold, Dave Fulton, John Bunker fruit exploring on Deer Isle

September 6, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Tolamn Sweet, New Sharon, Maine

I collected about two dozen apples to use as props for my talk tomorrow in Deer Isle. Four of them are the classic cultivars typically found on the oldest farms in central and southern Maine. They are Blue Pearmain, Tolman Sweet, Roxbury Russet and Yellow Bellflower. The other apples are all cultivars that would now be extinct were it not for the work of the Maine Heritage Orchard.

September 5, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today I visited Sweetsers’ Orchard in Cumberland to check out the Red Gravensteins. The Sweetser apple is a red sport of one of the most famous cooking apples in the world. There are several—or many—red Gravenstein sports. Each one has its own distinct name, such as the endangered Rosebrook of Sebastopol, CA.  As far as we know, the Sweetser sport is unidentified. En route home I visited several small commercial orchards to see what unusual apples they might be growing.  Late in the day I picked our Somerset of Maine and Red St. Lawrence. Both are also excellent late-summer cooking apples and are extremely rare.  I have never seen an old tree of Somerset. There may be none left. The scionwood for ours came from Bill Reid who obtained it from Glen Harris. Glen lived not far from where the apple originated and died before I was able to meet him. Somerset of Maine is one example of the many varieties that would be lost forever were it not for the efforts of countless people who are attempting to save the old varieties for future generations. You can read more about Somerset of Maine in Apples and the Art of Detection, chapter 9. Red St. Lawrence is even more rare than Somerset. More on that apple in a future post.  

September 4, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Laura picked the old tree (#20) in row 1 at Finley Lane. I had been mystified by its identity for years - for a while I thought it was a Gravenstein. I sent it to be DNA profiled, and it came back as “Milwaukee.” Is our tree Milwaukee?  Bussey (Illustrated History of Apples) lists Milwaukee as being a Duchess seedling [Bussy: Oldenburg] originating in Milwaukee, WI and introduced by George Jeffrey. I believe that our trees (there were at least two of them) were planted in about 1925. As of 1911 (Bradford: Apple Varieties of Maine) there is no mention of Milwaukee growing in Maine. Could it have gotten here within the next 15 years? The short answer is: perhaps. Next steps will include a detailed phenotypic dive into the fruit and an exploration of 1920-era nursery catalogs that might have offered Milwaukee trees that might have been sent to Maine. The mystery continues. 

Milwaukee has a deep, abrupt basin (scionwood from USDA)

September 3, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

I visited The Apple Farm in Fairfield and Sandy River Orchard in Mercer to get a sense of their 2024 crops. The Apple Farm should have many interesting cultivars this fall, including several excellent apples for the Out on a Limb CSA. Sandy River Orchard does not have a large crop but should have apples for the CSA as well. Hopefully we will pick Wealthy there in about a week.

Later in the day I went up to Finley Lane and cleared all the brush from around tree #20 in row #1. We’ll pick it tomorrow. The tree has been DNA profiled and came back as “Milwaukee.” This could be correct, although I suspect that it might be a case of an incorrectly identified submission to the reference panel.  The apples—whatever they are—do look good and are definitely ready to pick.  Another apple mystery to sort out.

Row1, tree #20 Finley Lane Orchard. Milwaukee??

August 25, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Most of the day was taken up tasting five advanced selections of dessert apples bred by the Pennsylvania orchardist and apple breeder, Ike Kerschner.  A group from Fedco came in the morning and a group from Portland came in the late afternoon.  Of the five, the apple with the most fans was #58.  It was the one that the Fedco group thought might have potential as a cooking apple. It is a beautiful apple by non-commercial standards: russet netting and muted colors. It has the coloring that would look good in our orchard but might have a hard time making it in the Hannford produce department. If it does come to a grocery store near you it will no longer be #58. By then, it’ll have a clever, catchy name.   

Five apples bred by Ike Kerschner

When I wasn’t tasting apples, I put the repaired tire back on the tractor.  Although it may be hard to believe that the farm survived forty-one years without a tractor, wheel barrows are way under-rated. You can do a lot with a wheelbarrow.

August 20, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Purple Heart Plum

Today we picked all the Purple Heart plums.  This is our favorite plum. It is delectable fresh eating. The fruit size is medium-large, the shape is round, the reddish-purple skin is not too sour, the flesh is dark glistening red.  Oh what a great plum!

No one knows the origin of Purple Heart, and no one has figured out the pedigree. There is, however, an interesting story behind it. Evidently an unidentified tree or scion was brought to the great New Hampshire plant breeder Elwin Meader eighty years ago or so. Meader had not seen or tried the fruit, but he consented to plant a tree.  When the the tree fruited, Meader instantly knew it was fantastic. He attempted to track down the fellow who had brought it to him, but by then the fellow had died. Meader named it Purple Heart for its purple-red flesh and introduced it. Although adored by connoisseurs,  Purple Heart has never gained much popularity with commercial growers. Commercial plums aren’t grown much in the eastern US, and Purple Heart is a finicky grower, not particularly productive and would probably ship about as well as an heirloom tomato. 

Purple Heart is of an unknown species. It may be a complex hybrid cross of native North American and Asian species. Its pollination requirements are unknown. With ours, we “covered all the bases.” Nearby our Purple Heart tree we have also planted Prunus ussuriensis, Prunus nigra and the complex “Black Ice”. One of them is providing the dust. At some point, perhaps, someone will DNA profile it and determine its pedigree. Until then, it’s just Purple Heart, this amazingly delicious August plum.  Someday we should plant a bunch of seeds and see what we get.  

August 23, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

The colorized photo of Red June in Apples of NY (1905). It is the spitting image of Jay Kenney’s UAF#3.

Today I put on my apple identification hat and made a case before the Historic Fruit Working Group for why the apple discovered by Jay Kenney of Clear Fork Cider in Paonia, Colorado and determined by DNA profiling to be UAF 3 (Unknown American Founder #3) should be declared to be the true Red June.  (See Orchard Report for 08/18/2024). The phenotypic evidence is pretty clearly a match with the historic descriptions, and the Working Group was convinced. Two historic apple collectors from North Carolina are coming up to Maine Apple Camp in a week and will bring with them what they call Red June (it originated in the South); it will be very interesting to see what they bring. We know we’ve found Unknown American Founder #3; we just aren’t 100% certain that UAF #3 is Red June.  At this point, I’d say it’s 99%.

I also toured our orchards, clipboard in hand, to see what was ripe.  I collected specimens for a small display of odd selections for tomorrow’s writers event. There will be a lot to taste for the first time this year.

Today’s photo:

August 19, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A couple of days ago I collected a bagful of Duchess of Oldenburg drops. The “Duchess” are beautiful this year. The Duchess and other summer apples are ripening—or at least dropping—early. The Duchess seeds are brown and the fruit appears to be ripe. I made a large pot of Duchess applesauce today. It’s still on the stove and will go through the food mill in a few minutes. I also saved all the seed. I’ll stratify the seed this winter, plant them in the spring and in 2026 we’ll use many of the seedlings for our own rootstock. We’ll set out the best of them in row of Duchess trees for future pies, sauce and rootstock seed.  

Duchess seed harvested August 19, 2024

August 18, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Red June apples

Apple Identification season is upon us. Let the season begin! Today Alyssa joined me to look at apples from Colorado and New Hampshire.  The Colorado apple appears to be Red June and the NH apple appears to be Early Harvest.  In the coming weeks there will be many more submissions to look at and attempt to ID. We also collected leaves for DNA profiling. This batch are all historic cider cultivars sent to me from England over the past ten years. They all went through the APHIS program (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) in Beltsville MD and have now been released to us to grow out and disseminate.  Later we picked blackberries. It’s a fabulous blackberry year. It’s also shaping up to be a fabulous elderberry year. All the elderberry bushes on the farm are absolutely loaded.  Peaches are continuing to drop though so far we’re just collecting them off the ground and leaving those on the trees to ripen.

August 15 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Propping up peach branch with forked stick, Super Chilly Farm.

Peach Season is approaching fast! Today we collected a half bushel of Red Haven peaches off the ground. One branch of our oldest Red Haven tree broke off under the weight of the fruit. We thin the young fruit but never as much as we probably should. We also put “Y-shaped” forked sticks under the bearing branches to prop them up. That can help a lot. Many of the peach drops are still firm (or hard), but some are soft to the touch and are making excellent smoothies. If all goes well, we’ll be swamped with peaches within the next week or so.

In the not-so-good news department, fire blight is still here and we’ll be doing another pruning in the next few days.  

August 14 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura was here for the day, weeding in the Finley Lane orchard and the BRC. The orchards here require weeding almost daily all spring and summer. I went on a mission to Portland to visit the “Suite Eleven” tree in-town Portland and an ancient tree in Falmouth. The Falmouth tree should be DNA profiled and phenotyped to see if we can identify it. It is a great find. These are the vintage trees we’re looking for: hollow and nearly dead. They are the most likely candidates for being of historic value. Keep on the look-out for them, and if you see one, let us know.

The Falmouth “Deena” tree, August 14, 2024

August 13, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura and I worked in the orchards. Laura cleared one of the paths in the “BRC” orchard.  The paths have been narrowing over the past few weeks. Without some attention we might not have been able to get to the chicken coop, let alone the apple trees.  It’s great to have lots of “companions” in the orchard—we encourage them—but you still need access! Later we worked together weeding and applying Neem oil to the trunks of the young trees in our neighbor Haskells orchard. That orchard is old but includes about 40 young trees we’ve provided to them over the years. The first of those—a Wolf River—is fruiting for the first time.  

August 12, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Clethra alnifolia

One of my favorite woody perennials is now in full bloom, Clethra alnifolia (coastal sweetpepperbush or summer sweet). We grow the pink flowering Ruby Spice but the common white flowering Clethra is just as fine a plant. Though it does not appear to spread from seed, it does spread from root suckers, and one small plant can spread to ten-fifteen across in ten years. It’s not tall. Our oldest plant is about four-five feet. Clethra is super attractive to bees and butterflies. Tonight at 7:00 there were still several bumblebees buzzing from flower to flower.

August 11, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today a quick word about Maine Apple Camp. It’s the event you should attend this summer if you’re reading this orchard report. It’s two days of fun, apples and people, the best combination in the world. Designed for experts, beginners and everyone in between. Open to all ages from 1 day to 1 century. Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your neighbors. If you love apples, come join us.  For more information and registration, go to the link below. And, if you’d like to listen to my 2023 Apple Camp keynote, go to the second link.

Maine Apple Camp registration 

John Bunker’s 2023 NY Apple Camp keynote

August 10, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Hayes picking blackberries - and eating them too

We had another 1.5” of rain in the past two nights - the Earth is well-hydrated. Blackberry season has now begun. In the orchard we call the BRC (Breathe, Rest, Center?) we have allowed the wild blackberries to have partially free-reign. Where they interfere with access to the apple trees, we cut the canes to the ground and let the snipped-off plants rot into compost. We have at least two distinct blackberry species. Our most prolific is the Common Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) which grows throughout the orchard. We also have what I assume is Dewberry (Rubus flagellaris). The fruit on both is black in color and relatively similar in shape. The Common Blackberry grows on long arching canes, while the Dewberry grows on a trailing vine. The porcupines love them, and you can often see signs of porcupine in our larger blackberry patches; the vines will be trampled and most of the fruit will be gone. Cammy and Hayes were out there picking blackberries today for an amazing dessert they concocted for dinner. 

August 9, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Bunk’s “Nearing style” compost heaps

I was interviewed for an apple article recently by an old friend I haven’t seen in years. One of her questions was about mentors. I was fortunate to have several. One of them was Scott Nearing. Although I never had a personal conversation with him, I did hear him speak several times in the 1970’s and early ’80’s. He was an amazing speaker as well as a pacifist, radical thinker and farmer. Just what we need more of! He wrote dozens of books about economics and political history and also about homesteading. The Establishment alternately dismissed or hated him, depending on how correct he was. He and Helen were instrumental in my early move to “the land” in Palermo. I visited their farm in Cape Rosier three times and did my best to study everything they did. Every time I build a new compost pile, I think of them. I loved their “heaps”, and ours are a direct steal. All our stone work, including our garden wall, is also a Nearing steal. Their book, Living the Good Life, is a classic as is his autobiography, The Making of a Radical.  I mention him today because I think of him on August 6 and 9 every year. The Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on his 52nd birthday—79 years ago. Nagasaki was three days later on the 9th. Let’s hope that never happens again.

August 8, 2024

Eupatorium in bloom

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

I’m always looking for herbaceous perennials that will form seedling populations in the orchards. Sunflowers, dill and poppies reseed in the vegetable garden with a vengeance. None of them have yet moved into the orchard. They may be too fond of open soil. Monarda (bee balm) and nettles, however, do not require open soil and have established themselves throughout our orchards without any help from us other than to set in a few plants. Another herbaceous perennial I love is the native Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum). I put in a couple of plants a few years ago, and it’s beginning to spread. It’s flowering right now. While not nearly as showy as Monarda and Goldenrod, it is a really cool plant. The blue-green leaves are long and pointed. The flowers are off-white. What it contributes to the balanced orchard ecosystem remains to be seen although the bees seem to love it.  

August 7, 2024

Buckwheat cover crop coming up after four days

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Didn’t get out into the orchards until 7 PM today, but I was immediately reminded that evening is the perfect time to be out with the trees in early August. The light is magical, and the temperature is cooling off but warm enough for short sleeves. The Bee Balm is still a massive bloom though it is beginning to wane, while the Golden Rod is approaching its peak. In the Finley Lane orchard it’s an ocean of pink and yellow. The Boneset is also reaching its peak. The buckwheat we planted four days ago is already up and covering what was the garlic bed. Everything is growing like crazy. I harvested the small crop of Tetofsky, the third apple to ripen. Those will go into sauce in the next couple of days.

August 6, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

This morning we ate the first apple sauce of the season made from Duchess drops. Tart but delicious. A big crew, including two of our grandchildren, descended on the larger hoop-house and picked a bucket of hornworms off the tomatoes. All agreed they are disgusting. Laura worked in the “Jurassic Park” BRC orchard, clearing path edges and mulching young trees with the trimmings. We also cut Gracious, Grenville, Hanska and Pembina plum budwood for Seth Yentes of North Branch Farm who will bud graft plums for Fedco. Budwood is the same new wood as winter-cut scionwood but is actively growing and therefore quite tender. We immediately snip off the foliage, leaving the petiole (leaf stem) and then put it in a cooler.  Unlike dormant scionwood, it doesn’t keep long so it must be grafted as soon as possible after cutting.

Plum budwood